The Gendered Streets of Leipzig

The Leipzig Gender Map is an interactive map which visualizes how many streets are named for men and women in the German city. The map clearly reveals the disparity in the number of street names which commemorate women compared to the number of streets which commemorate men.

On the map streets named for women are colored yellow and streets named for men are colored red (streets colored green are not named after people). In total only 119 streets in Leipzig have been named for women. In comparison 1,201 streets are named after men. Over half of the 119 streets named for women are not named after real women. For example a number of streets have been named after fairytale characters and Nordic deities. In total only 56 streets are named in honor of real historically prominent women.

All the colored streets on the Leipzig Gender Map are interactive. This means that you can click on a street to learn more about the derivation of its name. The city of Leipzig also maintains data on when streets were named (or renamed). The Leipzig Gender Map allows you to filter the map to show only streets named during different dates. You can therefore use these filters to analyze during which periods of the city's history streets were more likely to be named for women.

If you are interested in exploring the disparity of representation in street names in other major cities then you might like the maps created by Geochicas and EqualStreetNames. You can also find more examples under the toponym tag on Maps Mania.